​Adidas buys Runtastic for €220 million

The German giant has bought Runtastic, securing its hold on the fitness market
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Adidas has bought Runtastic, the running app giant and fitness band maker for €220 million, giving the company access to its 70 million users.

For the uninitiated, Runtastic is one of the leading run-tracking apps, and boasts more than 140 million app downloads, along with its 140 employees. They will join the much larger Adidas Group of 53,000 staff across the globe.

It also has its own fitness tracker, the Orbit, which merges day-to-day fitness tracking with running stats mirrored from a smartphone. For Adidas, it will not only bring millions of users into its ecosystem, but also help it cover the less serious end of the fitness market.

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The acquisition will add to Adidas' existing array of miCoach running wearables, and its selection of apps – none of which have managed to attract the market share boasted by Runtastic.

"This investment will add considerable value on our journey to deliver new world-class sports experiences. In addition, it offers the opportunity to grow a highly engaged athlete user base and leverage the power of our broad product portfolio," said CEO of Adidas Group, Herbert Hainer.

Adidas currently has three running watches, the miCoach Fit Smart, a halfway house between GPS running watch and an activity tracker, and the miCoach Smart Run, a solid GPS running watch. Both of which uses Mio heart rate monitoring technology. The company doesn't currently boast a fitness tracker amongst its ranks.

​Adidas buys Runtastic for €220 million


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